Soooo... just a thought rumbling in my head. In cruising the various "Eisner is Evil" sites, one common thread I've been seeing repeatedly is the statement, "And enough with the princesses!"
I was thinking about this exhaustion of the market... and then thinking about the fact there hasn't been a classic "princess" cartoon since "Beauty and the Beast". Okay, so there was a princess in "Aladdin". I'll let you count that... "Pocahantas" doesn't count. You have to have a ball gown and/or a crown to count.
But basically, there has not been a princess film since 1992. That's over thirteen years ago. This insane marketing to youngsters are for films that were made before they were born. There has not been a cartoon that focuses on the most beautiful beauty an artist can create, a film that explores the feminine side of the human psyche, in over a decade. Instead, we have had "Brother Bear", "Treasure Plant", "Hercules", "Home on the Range", "The Emperors New Groove", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"...
And, don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed ALL of those films (except for "Brother Bear"... I mean, come on. How many dying family members can you squeeze into a cartoon before it just stops begin fun anymore...) and own most of them. But they have not done well in the marketplace.
In going forward, I wonder if perhaps abandoning this side of humanity is one of the causes of Disney's 2-D animation downfall. The market is obviously there. Little girls still continue to gobble up merchandise for cartoons made as far back as seventy years ago. Perhaps the problem is that there are not ENOUGH princess films. I feel like Disney animation abandoned this idea of "fantasy" for "clever" and "smart". Perhaps there were not enough cartoons that focused on the biggest dreams that a person could have and then watching them come true.
Just a thought...
I was thinking about this exhaustion of the market... and then thinking about the fact there hasn't been a classic "princess" cartoon since "Beauty and the Beast". Okay, so there was a princess in "Aladdin". I'll let you count that... "Pocahantas" doesn't count. You have to have a ball gown and/or a crown to count.
But basically, there has not been a princess film since 1992. That's over thirteen years ago. This insane marketing to youngsters are for films that were made before they were born. There has not been a cartoon that focuses on the most beautiful beauty an artist can create, a film that explores the feminine side of the human psyche, in over a decade. Instead, we have had "Brother Bear", "Treasure Plant", "Hercules", "Home on the Range", "The Emperors New Groove", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"...
And, don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed ALL of those films (except for "Brother Bear"... I mean, come on. How many dying family members can you squeeze into a cartoon before it just stops begin fun anymore...) and own most of them. But they have not done well in the marketplace.
In going forward, I wonder if perhaps abandoning this side of humanity is one of the causes of Disney's 2-D animation downfall. The market is obviously there. Little girls still continue to gobble up merchandise for cartoons made as far back as seventy years ago. Perhaps the problem is that there are not ENOUGH princess films. I feel like Disney animation abandoned this idea of "fantasy" for "clever" and "smart". Perhaps there were not enough cartoons that focused on the biggest dreams that a person could have and then watching them come true.
Just a thought...
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